"It's starting." Fujino looked at the surrounding space, where an invisible force was pushing time backward.
"How interesting. As expected of the witch who devoured half the world; she already possesses half of the world's control." Fujino smiled and lightly tapped the void with her slender finger. Like a stone hitting the water's surface, ripples spread outward, beginning to block the power of Return by Death.
Satella, the witch who devoured half the world—or rather, the existence that devoured half of the world will—was no different from being another world will herself. However, there was a distinction between being natural-born and becoming one later. As for now, Satella was fully capable of becoming the world will entirely. After all, the original world will had been completely crippled by Fujino. Satella only needed to find Fujino to become the absolute ruler of this world.
250. She didn't do so. For one, ever since the current world will's plan to use Teresa to kill Fujino failed, it feared Fujino would destroy it directly and fled. It was now hiding deep inside someone's body, thinking Fujino hadn't noticed, but in reality, Fujino simply didn't feel like taking action yet.
Secondly, Satella herself had no intention of becoming the ruler of this world. Fujino was quite curious about this and hoped to ask her in person, though not right now.
The power of Return by Death was blocked by Fujino and immediately grew violent, beginning to resist Fujino's power. But what use was that? Fujino's power was like the vast stars, while the Return by Death granted by Satella was but a tiny speck.
Fujino's power only defended passively. No matter how much Return by Death exerted its power, it couldn't shake her in the slightest.
"Oh, you finally noticed."
Sensing a gaze coming from another space, Fujino smiled. Then, everything around her was paused, and Fujino vanished from the spot.
Fujino appeared in a pitch-black space. There wasn't a single ray of light here, only endless darkness and solitude.
"It really is dark enough." With a wave of Fujino's hand, light dispelled the surrounding darkness and solitude, revealing the person who had been dwelling in the dark under the light Fujino released.
Fujino looked at the woman before her who shared the same face as Emilia. The Satella before her eyes truly had the exact same face as Emilia; there was no difference between them in terms of appearance. However, their gazes were very different. Satella's eyes were filled with sorrow.
"Satella." Fujino softly called Satella's name and walked slowly toward her, finally stopping two or three steps away.
"Outsider, why are you stopping me?"
Satella looked at Fujino with eyes full of sadness. As an existence equivalent to the world will of the other side, she could naturally see that Fujino was not an existence of this world. But that was all; Satella couldn't see anything more.
"Because I wanted to come and see you," Fujino said truthfully, her gaze toward Satella appearing somewhat strange.
"Why see me? And why look at me with that kind of gaze?" Satella's eyes were no longer filled only with sadness; they now carried some confusion as well.
"Because you are truly interesting!" Fujino looked at Satella with some excitement. "As the witch who devoured half the world and indirectly killed countless lives, you are actually feeling sad for the deaths of those people?"
"How do you know?" Satella looked at Fujino in surprise, not understanding how she knew these things.
Fujino didn't speak, just looked at Satella quietly with a smile.
Upon meeting Satella, Fujino had directly read Satella's heart. She decided against asking in person, as Satella might not necessarily tell her. Such a simple and crude method was indeed more suitable for Fujino.
After reading Satella's heart, Fujino realized just how interesting Satella was. A witch who had lost control, causing her to devour half the world and indirectly kill so many lives, actually felt sorrow for those deaths and wanted to atone. To that end, she had sealed herself in this dark space. Should Fujino call her kind or foolish?
"Is this really a witch?!"
Fujino found it hard to judge, as everyone is different, but this didn't affect Fujino's perception of Satella.
Fujino never felt sad for the people she killed. In the world of the One Piece, Fujino understood very deeply what the essence of the world was. In the world of the One Piece, Fujino had also caused the deaths of uninvolved people while pursuing pirates, but she felt nothing about it. In Fujino's view, if they died, they died; the main reason was their own weakness or misfortune. To others, this might be an evil act, unworthy of the Marine's title of justice. Back then, Garp had disciplined Fujino many times for this, but it still didn't change her. To the her of that time, it was just how things were. Therefore, she had been quite appreciated by Akainu in the Marine back then, likely because Akainu felt she was the same kind of person as him.
Regarding Akainu, Fujino had nothing much to say. Even regarding the matter of him killing Ace, in her view, it was simply a matter of differing positions. Akainu did nothing wrong; he was a Marine, and Ace was a pirate. Is it wrong for a Marine to kill a pirate? It is not. Everyone must take responsibility for their choices in life, whether right or wrong. That was how Fujino saw it. If the world of the One Piece wasn't called One Piece but Marine King, then Fujino felt Akainu would very likely be the protagonist.
"Let's leave it at that for now." Fujino waved her hand to open a rift and said to Satella, "I will come to see you again in the future."
"Wait!"
Satella wanted to grab Fujino to ask for clarification, to ask how she knew about her affairs, but it was too late. Fujino had already completely disappeared from this space along with the rift, though the light she brought stayed behind.
Looking at her hand that had grasped at nothing, and the light that dispelled the darkness in this space, Satella lowered her head, lost in thought.
Returning to her original location, Fujino looked at the sky and smiled. Then, she cancelled the time stop and the power blocking Return by Death.
Without obstacles, Return by Death quickly rewound the world's time.
Fujino sent a message to Rem and Ram using magic transmission,
and then vanished from the spot.
"What's going on?!" Subaru Natsuki opened his eyes in terror, seeing not the incoming iron balls, but the street where he had originally been.
"Was it a dream?"
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